This Target Was the Most Suitable

Watching Hayato laugh hysterically before him, Fugaku stood there in a daze.

An indescribable agony mingled with guilt over everything he had done over the years: as clan head, he had failed to protect his people.

He had tacitly allowed Shisui to side with the Hokage faction.

He had been cowardly and compromising, afraid to stand up to Danzo and the pressure from the Konoha High Command.

He, Uchiha Fugaku, had let down his ancestors and the Uchiha Clan.

[Bitter Fruit Entry System]

[Target detected: Uchiha Fugaku]

[Bitter Fruit type triggered: Regret Bitter Fruit]

[Content: He blamed himself for failing to protect his people as clan head, for being cowardly and compromising, and for not daring to stand up to Danzo and the pressure from the Konoha High Command.]

[Harvesting...]

[Harvest successful!]

[Uchiha Fugaku's Regret Bitter Fruit]

[Extractable entry rewards: Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Chakra Capacity Doubled, Uchiha Secret Technique: Body Flicker, Fire Style, Shuriken Proficiency+]

[Due to a critical effect this time, two entry rewards may be selected]

[Critical hit generated a one-time Experience Card: Sin Retrospection]

What?

Hayato's laughter stopped. He was utterly dumbfounded.

Hearing the laughter stop, Fugaku stepped forward, concerned. "Hayato, what's wrong?"

He was genuinely a little worried that Hayato might just drop dead in front of him. That would only add to his guilt.

Hayato had a sudden flash of inspiration. His eyes rolled back, and he fell straight over.

"Hayato!"

Fugaku cried out and caught him, then shouted toward the doorway, "Get someone in here!"

The Uchiha clan members standing guard outside rushed in through the doors. Fugaku's voice trembled as he said, "Quick, get a medical ninja from the clan!"

A figure hurried to Fugaku's side and immediately began examining Hayato.

Hayato kept his eyes closed. He had been ready for this, and as soon as the medical ninja began checking him, he sank his consciousness into the system panel.

"What happened?" Fugaku asked, watching the medical ninja's examination.

"Clan Head, he suffered an emotional shock that disrupted his chakra. He's in a self-induced state of hibernation and should wake up soon." The medical ninja looked rather puzzled.

She had examined Hayato's body and found nothing abnormal, but his mental state was undeniably fluctuating.

Since Fugaku had asked, she could only answer this way.

Fugaku breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, he was all right.

Looking at the clan members chattering in the room, Fugaku said softly, "Everyone, leave. Let this child get some rest."

They all froze, then turned their eyes to Fugaku.

There was something different about their clan head.

"Take some compensation from the clan's public funds." Fugaku looked at Rin, whose body was covered with a white cloth.

"Just say... he died fighting for the Uchiha, for Konoha. Don't say too much."

With that, Fugaku picked up the head nearby and left alone.

He needed some time to think.

To think about whether he had really done the right thing all these years.

In his mind, Hayato looked at the system panel before him. At that moment, he truly felt he had made the right move.

"What a haul."

Hayato kept muttering as he looked at the rewards on the panel.

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan and the other rewards—any one of them would let an ordinary ninja make tremendous progress.

As for Chakra Capacity Doubled, that went without saying. Ordinary ninja didn't have much chakra to begin with; not everyone was like Kakashi.

In the original story, Kakashi always seemed to be running out of chakra, but that was because his Sharingan was constantly active, draining chakra every moment.

Judging by chakra alone, without the burden of the Sharingan, Kakashi would have been one of the best among Konoha's jōnin.

Even with the Sharingan leaving him low on chakra, he could still carve a dog's head into an Earth Release technique.

And Uchiha Secret Technique: Body Flicker, Fire Style, and Shuriken—any one of those would be highly coveted.

With enough training, even a single one could make someone a Special Jōnin.

I'll choose the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Uchiha Secret Technique: Body Flicker, Fire Style, and Shuriken Proficiency+.

After silently making his selection, Hayato waited to see how the passive doubling would work.

[Passive effect activated. Doubling...]

[Entry rewards updated to: Three-Tomoe Sharingan+, Uchiha Secret Technique: Body Flicker, Fire Style, Shuriken Mastery]

What a win!

Hayato couldn't help feeling delighted. He was genuinely glad he had chosen the passive effect earlier.

After the rewards were issued, Hayato began carefully sensing the changes in his body.

An itch came from his eyes, but since he was pretending to be unconscious, he could only endure it.

Then came mastery of Body Flicker, Fire Style, and Shuriken.

Some of the insights and notes Shisui had left on Body Flicker overlapped with what he now knew. Fire Style came with several B-rank techniques, while Shuriken Mastery offered the most.

All kinds of Uchiha Shuriken Jutsu.

The Uchiha Shuriken Jutsu was famous throughout the Ninja World. The Shuriken Manipulation Technique and Uchiha Itachi's technique of striking one thrown shuriken against another to hit a blind spot were among the many methods it encompassed.

No wonder he's the clan head. These rewards really are extraordinary.

Hayato marveled to himself. The rewards were incredible, and this was the first time he had been allowed to choose two out of three.

Then he turned his attention to the last reward.

A one-time Experience Card: Sin Retrospection.

He opened the so-called one-time Experience Card and examined it carefully. One-time items were either incredibly powerful or incredibly rare.

As it turned out, he had been right. Even though he had prepared himself, the details before him left him dumbstruck.

Good grief!

If he used this on any Uchiha clan member, wouldn't it directly awaken their Mangekyo?

Sin Retrospection would let its target see, from a first-person perspective, every painful moment endured by all the Uchiha youths who had died in accidents. It also had an additional effect.

They would see the true future.

In other words, the Uchiha Clan Massacre would play on a continuous loop, second by second.

Honestly, Hayato was tempted to use it on himself. The Mangekyo!

Once he awakened the Mangekyo, even at his weakest, he could reach the level of a Kage Level powerhouse like the Kazekage. Don't underestimate even the weakest Kazekage.

He could take down any jōnin in minutes, except elite jōnin like Kakashi.

But after thinking it over, he decided against it. He knew the Night of the Massacre was coming and had lived under the threat of death for years, yet he still hadn't awakened the Mangekyo.

Then there's only one target.

Hayato immediately thought of the person best suited to use it, aside from himself.

That's right, his dearest clan head: Uchiha Fugaku.

He had already awakened the Mangekyo but had never revealed it, and unlike other Uchiha clan members, he had no trouble controlling his emotions.

In the original story, he had personally given tacit approval to—and even helped drive forward—his son's massacre of the clan, bearing the blood debt of the entire clan.

This target was the most suitable.